The World Cup 2014 has given Rio de Janeiro precedence in the public eye, making it a logical location for CSR initiatives. French news agency, AFP partnered with Nikon to provide children who live in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) favela with photography workshops. While the project has a topical focus on football, the favela photographs inevitably have socially conscious undertones making them suitable material for AFP.

The project was spearheaded by AFP’s head of photography in Brazil, Christophe Simon, who led the workshops, the cameras used were loaned by Nikon. For upwards of five months the adolescents were encouraged to photograph their daily lives, while incorporating their passion for football.

Simon says, “I was amazed that these children were able to produce such good photographs. If I had been working on this theme I would only have been able to use my professional technique and my trained eye. But these children were able to show where they lived and where their passion for football came from. The result is more than honest.”

The project was run in cooperation with Lente Dos Sonhos, a local photography school, and targeted 18 children between the ages of 10 and 15. Some of the best photographs from the project have been put onto AFP’s image platform ImageForum and are available for sale, all profits will go to Casa Geracao, a charity that helps children from favelas into careers. The project will continue until 2016.